The list below contains SPOILERS. If you have not seen the Series Finale of Battlestar Galactica or if you haven’t seen a single episode but might watch the series one day (or be forced to watch by your daughter and spouse), do not read beyond this point. Seriously.
CAROL - DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER
Even with the above spoiler warning, I’m going to be less specific than I’d like to be. People who have seen the Finale will understand what I’m talking about.
BSG’s creator, Ron Moore, began his career writing for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Getting his foot in the door through a spec script, he was easily my favorite writer for the show. Once TNG ended, he moved to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and was there until that show ended. In its last season, DS9 devoted the last ten episodes to wrapping up a multi-season story arc about the Federation-Dominion war. The war was handled beautifully and the stories told during that period are some of the best Trek ever created.
The first nine of the last ten episodes were fantastic. Really, really, good. But in the last episode, they flubbed an easy lay up. It wasn’t horribly bad; it had all the elements of a great story, but the story-telling was muddled. The episode was a disappointment. Sound familiar?
Here we go . . .
#5 - The resolution of the Baltar storyline. What happened to the Baltar Cult? What was the whole point of the Cult in the first place? What about Baltar’s redemption or sacrifice? Where did that go? Firing a gun in a corridor is hardly a significant act of contrition and redemption.
#4 - The final shot fired in the war. It was so lame I didn't even understand it when I saw it; someone else had to point it out to me. A dead hand falls onto a missile launcher just as the Raptor is pointed in the right direction? Really? W-T-F?
#3 - The vision of the Opera House. The long-awaited resolution of the vision shared by several characters comes down to three people running through corridors and ending up in the C&C seconds before Roslyn and Athena? That’s it? What a huge letdown. I really expected that vision would tie into the last shot in the entire series. Nope.
#2 - Humans already on the planet? The inclusion of homo-sapiens completely confuses the whole resolution of the show. Eliminate them and we understand exactly how the Colonists fared. With the humans on the planet, it’s not at all clear what happens afterwards. And I won’t even go into the stupidity of the whole “spreading out to give the best chance of survival” idea.
And the thing I hated most about the BSG Finale is . . .
#1 - Deus Ex Machina TO THE EXTREME! The Galactica producers support Intelligent Design? God did it? No real explanation for Starbuck, Head-Baltar and Head-Caprica or the song? What a complete and utter letdown.
There were some things I really liked in the episode, especially the Adama/Roslyn storyline and I think the final battle was well done. But boy did they miss the boat on a lot of things.
BSG has earned its place as one of the best shows of all time. It was a success in almost every way. A bad finale doesn’t erase all that had gone before. While the end was certainly a huge disappointment, the series as a whole was riveting and compelling and I can still heartily recommend it.
But geez!
1 comment:
In other news, I stuck with Life on Mars the whole time, mostly because once it found its feet it was a good show, but partly to finally find out what the heck was going on at the center of it all? Why was he in 1973. The finale was Wednesday, and I'm not sure if I liked it or hated it. I'm leaning toward the latter. I don't think it was a complete cop-out, as many clues throughout the series point to the ending they gave it, but I'd love to know if that was planned ahead of time, or if they just came up with it when they were cancelled.
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